Self Worth (June Hunt Hope for the Heart) (5 page)

If you try to make it in the world’s system, you may never measure up, and you will never have total security. However, you can find complete security by learning to adopt God’s value system.

If you trust Him, God will begin to transform you from the inside out. Through His power, He will make you more like Him. He will make you the person you were always intended to be—
His precious child of infinite worth.
The Bible says ...

“You received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘
Abba
, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:15–17)

Are you ready to believe what God says about you? Will you let Him change your view of yourself? Jesus said,
“You must be born again”
(John 3:7). But what does this mean? God has provided four truths that will help you understand your worth through a new birth.

#1 God’s Purpose for You is
Salvation.

What was God’s motive in sending Christ to earth?

To express His love for you by saving you! The Bible says ...

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
(John 3:16–17)

What was Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth?

To forgive your sins, empower you to have victory over sin, and enable you to live a fulfilled life! Jesus said ...

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
(John 10:10)

#2 Your Problem is
Sin.

What exactly is sin?

Sin is living independently of God’s standard—knowing what is right, but choosing what is wrong. The Bible says ...

“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
(James 4:17)

What is the major consequence of sin?

Spiritual “death,” eternal separation from God. Scripture states ...

“Your iniquities [sins] have separated you from your God. ... For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Isaiah 59:2; Romans 6:23)

#3 God’s Provision for You is the
Savior.

Can anything remove the penalty for sin?

Yes! Jesus died on the cross to personally pay the penalty for your sins.

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8)

What can keep you from being separated from God?

Belief in (entrusting your life to) Jesus Christ as the only way to God the Father. Jesus says ...

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
(John 14:6)

#4 Your Part is
Surrender.

Give Christ control of your life—entrusting yourself to Him.

“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross [die to your own self-rule] and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?’”
(Matthew 16:24–26)

Place your faith in (rely on) Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and reject your “good works” as a means of earning God’s approval.

“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
(Ephesians 2:8–9)

The moment you choose to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior—entrusting your life to Him—He comes to live inside you. Then He gives you His power to live the fulfilled life God has planned for you. If you want to be fully forgiven by God and become the person God created you to be, you can tell Him in a simple, heartfelt prayer like this:

If you sincerely prayed this prayer, you can know that you are forever a member of God’s family,
forever loved
and
forever accepted
by Him!

“To all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)

One day at the orphanage, Dorie sat riveted at the back of a room hearing words she had never heard before—words foreign to her heart—words from a group of college students. But what Dorie heard couldn’t be true! God didn’t love her. God
couldn’t
love her.
Nobody
loved her!

As the students prepared to leave, one of them turned around and spoke slowly with such sincerity that Dorie was stunned. The student said, “Even if you forget everything we have told you, remember—
God loves you
.”

Though words can’t explain it, she
knew
it was true, and she spoke directly to God. “They said you love me. Nobody else does. If you want me, you can have me!” That very instant an unexpected peace settled over her. She knew:
This must be God
.

At that point, she grabbed hold of that love and held on to God—and He never let her go. But even more, He says His love is never ending—for us all.
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He says ...

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

• Realize that God knows all about you! (vv. 1–6)
  
• Remember that God is always with you! (vv. 7–12)
  
• Respect the fact that God created you! (vv. 13–14)
  
• Recognize that God uniquely designed you! (vv. 15–16)
  
• Receive God’s loving thoughts toward you! (vv. 17–18)
  
• Renounce God’s enemies as enemies to you! (vv. 19–22)
  
• Respond to God’s changing you! (vv. 23–24)
  

If you feel as though you have little value, is it possible your feelings are false? Remember the Bible says you are
“worth [your] weight in gold”
(Lamentations 4:2). Just think about how much
worth
that would literally be! If gold were selling at $250 per ounce, 1 pound (16 ounces) of gold would be worth $4,000. A person weighing 150 pounds would be worth $600,000—well over half a million dollars.
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Interestingly, the Bible presents a person’s worth as too great to be measured in mere monetary terms. Peter says your faith alone is
“of greater worth than gold”
(1 Peter 1:7). Are you beginning to see how much
you
, combined with
your faith
, are worth in the eyes of God? You are indeed precious to God. You have God-given worth.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

Dorie understands the waves of guilt with which countless victims struggle. Victims of childhood sexual abuse typically struggle with guilt even though they are not guilty of the abuse. A reason for the ongoing after-the-fact guilt is that they think or wonder whether they could have taken actions to lessen or stop the abuse. And because everyone has periodic sin (not doing what is right in God’s sight, whether in attitude or action), false guilt can get tangled together with true guilt.

Being pounded by
prolonged guilt
can strike a most damaging blow to your sense of worth, leaving you feeling dejected, discouraged, and demoralized. The problem with guilt is that it wears two faces—one is true, the other false.

• False guilt
  is Satan’s way to shame you, condemn you, and produce disabling discouragement in you.
  
• True guilt
  is God’s loving way to convict you, correct you, and conform you into the image of Christ so that you will reflect His character more accurately.
  

Godly sorrow over true guilt moves you to repentance, forgiveness, and freedom. Worldly sorrow produced by false guilt moves you to depression, despair, and death. In order to know how to get rid of your guilt, you need to identify whether it is true or false. Then you can respond accordingly.

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

• False guilt
  arises when you blame yourself, even though you’ve committed no wrong, or when you continue to blame yourself after you’ve confessed the wrong and turned from your sin.
  
• False guilt
  is not resolved by confession because it is not based on sin but on false accusations aimed at making you feel unforgiven and unaccepted by God. The truth is ...
  

“The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10)

• False guilt
  can be resolved by conferring with wise, objective persons—mature Christians—to help you determine whether the guilt you are feeling is false. If it is false guilt, remind yourself and your adversary Satan: (1) that you are not guilty or (2) that you were guilty but have been forgiven by God. The Bible gives this assurance ...
  

“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

• True guilt
  refers to the fact of your being at fault.
  
• True guilt
  requires payment of a penalty so that fellowship with God and/or others can be restored.
  
• True guilt
  can be forgiven by God as you admit you have sinned and confess your sin to Him.
  

When you deal with your guilt God’s way, God’s Word says ...

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)

By the world’s standards, Dorie had every right to hate her mother and harbor feelings of bitter unforgiveness. When her mother was charged with child neglect, Dorie had to appear in court. The judge asked her mother if Dorie was her child. After an agonizingly long pause, she answered, “Yes, but I’d have gotten rid of her before she was born if I could have!”
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The judge ordered Dorie and her sister permanently taken from their mother, and as they left the courtroom, her mother muttered to Dorie, “If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you!” Dorie later said that her mother’s rejection was total and final and all hope was quenched. “Am I that awful?” she asked herself. As she walked home alone, she prayed aloud that God would help her to understand why her mother had abandoned her, and she prayed that she wouldn’t hate her mother.

Dorie said, “In that moment God let me forgive her. I felt sorry for her. I had no hatred. That day God performed a healing work in my life and prevented a permanent scar.”
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She was able to ...

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” (Ephesians 4:31)

Do you struggle with low self-worth today because of poor parenting from your past? Are you floundering now because you had faulty authority figures? If so, leave behind those feelings of worthlessness, and experience your worth—the worth you have in the eyes of your heavenly Father. He wants you to:

• Admit the past truth.
  
• Address the present truth.
  
• Appropriate God’s truth.
  

“Show me your ways, O L
ORD
, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (Psalm 25:4–5)